Priyadarshini Jogdand, Lecturer, MGM IFD

Don’t we all possess special love for winter-wear, layers, earthy-pallete, “adrak wali kadak chai”,tempting yes. Chilly morning breeze is brutally soothing, while you want to be enveloped in softest, warmest, lightest fabrics. Talking of fabrics, wool has a good experimental potential.

Let’s talk about a few sources of wool which are uncommon to Indian eye

-ALPACA: The Alpaca is domesticated species of the South American Animal, they are kept in herds like sheeps that graze on the level of heights of the Andes at high altitudes, they are bred specifically for their fibre and have been domesticated for a thousands of years. The ibre is lustrous and silky, unlike sheep’s wool, it bears no lanolin, making it hypoallergenic.

-ANGORA: Angora, from the Angora rabbit is famous for its extreme softeness and fluffiness, known as the ‘halo’. It is much warmer and lighter than wool due to the hollow fiber, it is typically used with other fibers such as wool to add substance and elasticity, those soft, seductive fibers in pastel colors, made-up into form fitting garment was usually seen on Marilyn Monroe for the glamour it conveys.

-CAMEL HAIR:This comes from two-humped Bactrian camel from outer Mongolia, this Hair is collected during the molting season when the Animals shed their hair naturally. The hair is usually left undyed for its pleasing pale golden brown color, it is generally used for men and women’s outerwear.

-CASHMERE: The finest Cashmere is from China, The Cashmere goat has coarse outer hair and warm undercoat of fine fleece, which is plucked by hand from underbellies of the animals, A year’s produce from 4 to 6 animals is needed to make 1 sweater, hence expensive.

Trick here is to find the right source to score these babies from, for conventional aesthetics of the theme ‘Autumn-Winter’. 

Regardless, we do have every kind of wool that we get in the country, my personal favourite being ‘Pashmina’ just a stole around your neck and you can sustain harshest of winter, there’s a reason its kidney-expensive and you are very lucky if you find one one in bright red, for it being awesomest color for every season, everywhere.

I took care when I bought it for I am a huge PETA supporter, made sure where am I buying it from, which was in outskirts of Pahalgam, an old-white (Kashmiri) man who bred and sold the goats told me they also shed the hair in Summers, the feel/texture/warmth/feather-lightedness of these particular shawls are unbeatable. Here’s to doing our winters right, many many hot chocolates to you.